Q for W.Virginians: When was the last time you heard a Republican talk about

[Rectangle]

"Clean Drinking Water" ,or protecting the environment???


Anybody?

Just asking!

[dlwickham]

1. never

[TheBlackAdder]

27. Now, imagine living in a state with superfund sites and cancer clusters. We've seen this for years.

NJ has a pile of contaminated sites, due to industry actions and political malfeasance.

We don't want Fracking, fracking waste (which Christie is allowing), LNG ships (that if hit with a terrorist RPG would have the explosive force of 100 Hiroshima bombs), NG pipelines, etc.

We have enough here.

We're sending the alarm to other, purer states, not to follow suit. Unfortunately, your elected officials and big business are swaying voters to accept this as fate, instead of looking for alternatives like most every other country.


===


Most natural fuels are limited.

1) Fracking is needed because conventional NG caverns are now empty, taking valuable water resources that may even impede the Hoover Dam from working in a few years.

2) Oil is limited abd the head of BP said we've hit the point where prices will not do down. Yet people keep these expensive oil-based systems as corporations mandate them to. This is akin to owning a 5-1 ARM and being told that the interest rate will go up 2% every year from now until eternity... and deciding not to look for another mortgage.

3) Coal... come on with that one. The Reps in that area should have been looking for alternative industries to capitalize on, early in the process.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Um... not even the Democrats here talk about that

Here in WV, you can barely tell the difference between the two parties. We have a Democratic Governor and two Democratic Senators.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Which brings up another question or two...

How many folks reading this thread actually knew that WV has a Dem governor and two Democratic senators? Or did you just assume the state was run by Republicans? Or that because someone has a (D) by their name they must be supportive of sane environmental regulations?

Well, welcome to our world.

[LumosMaxima]

4. I knew that.

But I have a personal connection to the state, so it's not the same. I agree with you -- most people don't know that (or much of anything else) about WV.

[theHandpuppet]

8. Wasn't aimed at you, directly, but the DU audience

Over the years I've seen a lot of negative comments made here about WV and Appalachians, most borne out of ignorance. So I have a tendency to get my back up rather quickly, expecting to read a bunch of bigoted insults in any thread regarding WV.

WV isn't Vermont, folks. You go up against the coal industry and you're not going to get elected, period. Fear is a powerful motivator and in a state where coal provides the ONLY industry in many counties, you either mine or you don't eat. Now I may hate too many things associated with the mining industry and the devastation it causes to the environment but I also understand the fear of not being able to put food on the table... and that isn't going to go away until families in Appalachia are provided with decent jobs that are an alternative to mining. Just electing anyone with a (D) beside their name isn't going to change that. We have some important elections coming up in both WV and Kentucky, and the issues surrounding the regulation of the coal industry are a make or break for Democrats. Case in point:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/brian-walsh/2013/09/19/epa-coal-restrictions-put-obama-and-senate-democrats-on-defense
http://washingtonexaminer.com/west-virginia-senate-candidates-decry-epa-coal-proposal/article/2536186
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/79865

Believe me, it's no fun having to call your family and tell them to stock up on water. I have family living about 70 miles downstream from the site of this spill and I'm worried as hell. You can bet if this catastrophe happened anywhere but in Appalachia there would be scores of threads about it already.

Anyway, I've had my two cents' worth. Didn't mean to hijack your thread or anything so I'll bow out now.

[LumosMaxima]

10. Totally understand. nt

[theHandpuppet]

23. By the way...

Since I had mentioned jobs and economic diversification as part of a long-term solution to Appalachia's dependency on coal, here's a thread I posted about six months ago. Barely made a blip on the DU radar.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023147631

[El_Johns]

16. "Just electing anyone with a (D) beside their name isn't going to change that." = Indeed.

[MH1]

6. Well, I did know that. But I assumed your so-called Dems at least gave occasional lip service

to the environment.

But I was probably wrong about that.

EVERYONE in power in WV is in the pocket of the coal mining corporations, right?

So the best you can do - for the higher offices - is vote on other issues. While working at the lower levels to change that basic fact.

[theHandpuppet]

9. Your post is pretty much spot on

The only way to solve these problems on a permanent basis is by job creation. In many parts of WV and KY the mining industry is the ONLY source of employment paying a decent wage. Until people no longer fear having the food taken from the mouths of their kids, things aren't going to change no matter which party you vote for here.

Yes, our Dems are DINOs in many respects, not only on issues regarding the coal industry but on social issues as well. Though if you think our Dems stink up the joint, consider the kind of repukes we have in WV and Kentucky -- Mitch McConnell or Shelley Moore Capito, anyone? There are a lot of good, solid Dems around these parts but come election day, most of us have to hold our noses and vote D. At least the Democrats have the support of the unions, which the Republicans here would like to destroy.

[Tanuki]

13. When I was growing up in Wayne county,WV, my congressman was Ken Hechler

He is ancient now but still fighting the good fight
http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/ken-hechler

..."In his early years in Congress, Rep. Hechler became an outspoken opponent of strip mining — and drafted the nation’s first law setting up safety measures for coal miners, the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969.

The congressman also joined the civil rights movement, becoming in 1965 the only member of Congress to march with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama. In 1974, despite his efforts to defeat it, an amendment passed that would allow a new form of strip mining called mountaintop removal mining. He was forced to watch as coal companies brought their explosives, draglines and bulldozers to the hills of West Virginia. As the years went on, he saw “King Coal” and its deep pockets win the political interests of many of his colleagues in Congress, and in turn, he saw the situation back home in West Virginia get more and more dire. To this day, he dedicates himself to saving the mountains and waters of his state. In August, at age 96, he mounted a political campaign for the open Senate seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, running only to raise awareness of mountaintop removal mining. Here, Rep. Hechler explains why his fight to stop mountaintop removal mining is a fight for justice, and why it means so much to him to live to see the end of it.
- See more at: http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/ken-hechler#sthash.GHZWz5p8.dpuf

[dlwickham]

28. you're from Wayne?

is your last name Adkins?

you can't swing a dead cat in Wayne County without hitting someone named Adkins

I have friends from Wayne

[JVS]

18. The situation with coal is similar to that of the car industry or how the steel industry used to...

be in other states.
Democratic politicians need union voters and for those union voters need jobs. Even something as apparently anti-coal as being against strip mining is often rooted in preserving jobs. Strip mining allows far fewer workers to produce much more coal.

[pangaia]

26. I had to be reminded. Thanks.

I wish you all WELL !!

[randr]

5. Repubs just made major cuts to the Super Fund

Looks like the folks in WV are on their own.

[freshwest]

14. Not so. Their bill will not make it through the Senate and Obama says he'll veto it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024317236#post3

[randr]

21. This is good for the people of WV

I hope they see which side of the bread the butter is on.

[freshwest]

25. Going to be hard. Koch brothers are involved with the coal mine owners and will keep the hate going

against the uppity Obama and any form of regulation. Freedom is what they wanted, and the liberty of the 'free markert' use of their land and water is what they recieved. Just one a string of ecological disasters if reports from Riverkeepers and a DUer are correct. Sad to lose all that life and land.

[Rectangle]

7. Perhaps I should have inserted into the question , "and most (all?) WV dems".

Now would be a good time for WV Democrats to differentiate themselves
from Republicans on this issue .

But, It's kind of a hard-sell when Dem's have been operating under Republican
"Coal-Friendly" frames for generations.

[freshwest]

15. You can only do so much to change the will of the voters in a state:

Keith Judd, Texas Inmate, Gets 40 Percent Of Votes Against Obama In West Virginia Democratic Primary

By LAWRENCE MESSINA 05/08/12

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Just how unpopular is President Barack Obama in some parts of the country? Enough that a man in prison in Texas is getting 4 out of 10 votes in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary.

The inmate, Keith Judd, is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Obama was receiving 60 percent of the vote to Judd's 40 percent.

For some West Virginia Democrats, simply running against Obama is enough to get Judd votes.

"I voted against Obama," said Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat. "I don't like him. He didn't carry the state before and I'm not going to let him carry it again."

When asked which presidential candidate he voted for, Brown said, "That guy out of Texas."

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/keith-judd-texas-inmate-g_n_1501761.html?ref=elections-2012&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D159060

to Great Caesars Ghost

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014116863

There was mention at the OP link indicating coal mine owners were against Obama.

[Tanuki]

17. And yet, West Virginia was one of only 10 states that went for Dukakis,

[img][/img]

West Virginia also went for Bill Clinton in both elections.

[freshwest]

19. And preferred Hillary in 2008. The article I posted was from 2012. IDK why. n/t

[Saboburns]

22. Coal miners were union then, not so much now

The past 20 years has seen a huge drop in union miners. Nearly all mining here is non-union now.

[geek tragedy]

30. DINOs. They still identify as Democrats, but they're rightwing. nt

[theHandpuppet]

20. That's fair.

But I have to tell you that WV holds grudges, and the people of WV didn't forget how Obama snubbed them when election time rolled around (including the primaries), barely managing a classic Bush flyover. You want people in WV to support you, don't insult them in front of the whole nation and don't act as if they're not worth your time. Support works both sides of the street. Bill Clinton left a lot of friends in WV because he never acted as if they were beneath him.

[geek tragedy]

29. Oh please. They hated him since the primary.

Other than bleaching his skin white, joining the NRA, and promising to ban alternative fuels and abortion, nothing he could do would win them over.

[CanonRay]

11. When was the last time a West Virginia Democrat talked about that?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Nixon; EPA

Nixon started the EPA. I think a river had to burn first.

[ileus]

24. There are no elected Republicans in WV.